My Life with an S&M Maid

by Curiosity44

Anime worlds are fun as a story, but what happens when that story becomes your reality? Join Dante on his journey through a world full of adventure, romance, immortals, magic, magical beasts, oh, and a S&M maid, can't forget that one. Join him as he takes the world by storm as the Ouroboros Potioneer! The snake who grasped eternity. . Slight AU Fairy Tail, starts years before canon

10. Fateful Meetings Part 1

[CHAPTER NOT EDITED THROUGH GRAMMARLY. WILL BE EDITED AT A LATER TIME.]

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disc**d.(gg) / EQ59UbKhYk (I had to take the link apart to make fanfiction not ban it.)

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"Somebody speaking."

'Somebody thinking.'

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, or any other anime/novel/manga/fanfic that I may use.

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Chapter 8: Fated Meetings Part 1:

(AN: I have realized that perhaps using the concept of a flashback isn't for the best. In chapter 5 – 6, a flashback pretty much lasted a good 20K words. I will just list the date's after each line break and say 'five months ago' or '1 year later' and so on, ok? Flashbacks shouldn't be so long in my opinion. This was my next solution. Hope you guys enjoy!)

Year 777X, August 1st

Fates an interesting thing you know? You don't have to worry about it like a beta fanfic main character, challenge it like a wuxia main character, cry over it like an emo Sasuke, or any of that nonsense but you can laugh and ponder on it.

There's no harm in it so why not?

Fate can be a funny thing when you have an open mind. The phrase 'it's a small world' comes up often in life and you wonder what the chances of strange situations and meetings could possibly be for them to come true.

For me, I had to wonder on the topic while sitting on my balcony and staring up at the stars.

'I wonder what fate has in store for me?'

You see, I came into this world, and just like Truck-Sama advised, I didn't bother to care for the 'fate' of Canon. That was simply one possible timeline if no extra element was added in.

But an extra element WAS added in this time. That's me, and I've noticed plenty of small things to show this is an AU version of the world anyway.

The big picture is still the same, and I did my best to limit changing any future big events so far only because it helps to have future knowledge.

I can take steps now, in the current time, to take advantage of the future, but for the most part, I enjoy going with the flow of my own life.

So, what's a guy to do but wonder at the philosophy of his fate when he unintentionally runs into three important canon characters from completely different arcs, for various unlikely reasons with tiny chances of happening, and finds that all three are heavily interested in him.

Not to mention changing the fate of another character who was supposed to die.

The new apprentice that practically jumped him.

Oh, and don't forget the rabid Amazonian bunny girl in heat who is hunting him down to get her pregnant.

You can't forget that one.

And it all happened within a single month.

'*Sigh*, I just want to cuddle up with my lovely Virgo and forget everything for a little while. I need a vacation.'

A light sound of footsteps to my side brought just the person I was thinking of to me with a cup of steaming tea.

"I brought some refreshments master, its chilly tonight." (Virgo)

I smiled warmly at her and waved my hand for her to come closer.

She did so and I gently took the cup, placing it on the table before me, and tenderly pulled her to sit between my legs with her back to my chest.

Then with a thought, I pulled out a blanket and covered us both while leaning my head into the side of hers, rubbing affectionately into her hair, and inhaling her familiar scent.

"Just stay with me, I need a moment to rest my mind." (Dante)

Virgo leaned into me and a warm hand was placed on my cheek.

"Always and forever, my master." (Virgo)

As my mind drifted into pleasant slumber while cuddling, my thoughts turned back to the last month of my life where the cogs of fate decided to take me for a ride.

~ Line Break ~

Year 777, July 1st. – One month ago.

Turning back the clock a month, it had been a bit over eight weeks since I got my tattoo as I was going about my usual day of training, reading, visiting my kids, and working on orders for clients in my lab when I realized I was short of a certain ingredient.

'Damn it! I thought I had a few more in storage somewhere?'

Rummaging through drawers in my lab and being hit by various different scents of ingredients sitting securely in their containers, I frowned as I couldn't find the right one.

The ingredient I needed was called 'Juniper Berries', a type of berry that thrives in higher altitude climates.

It has loads of uses but I mainly use them for Pepper-Up potions. I personally don't like them because they only give temporary energy only to cause you to crash later but they give a good boost for mental/physical/magical reserves in a pinch and clients love them.

I would rather use high quality health, stamina, or mana potions but that's because I make them. For others, money doesn't grow on trees.

'*sigh* looks like I'll have to go get more. Oh well, I haven't done my work out for the day yet anyway.'

Switching out of my large sleeved Gi for a tight sleeveless muscle shirt, I poked my head into another room where Virgo was doing some chores.

"Hey love, I'm gonna head out to get some juniper berries, I'll be back in an hour, maybe a few if the road is bumpy." (Dante)

She responded while looking over shoulder.

"Understood, I'll have a bath ready for you when your back." (Virgo)

I gave her a smile and waved as I left.

"I can always count on you, love you." (Dante)

I heard her gently respond back as I walked down the stairs.

"I love you to." (Virgo)

'Hm, maybe I should catch something on the way for dinner? I'll try to look for one of her favorites.'

When you spend enough time with her, you can learn how to tell between her expressions when she really enjoys something even if someone who never knew her wouldn't have a clue about what she is feeling.

And it doesn't help that she would respond almost emotionlessly at times.

In the beginning, it was just a mental state she entered after years of crappy masters, but she learned to actually like it and still uses it from time to time. Especially in public, but when were alone, she tends to use it just to mess with me at times.

That girl is one massive tease.

Anything to get me riled up and punish her.

Walking around nude in nothing but an apron, sensually bending over or reaching up to get things in front of me, softly pressing into me and deliberately whispering in my ear when we are alone, and many more things.

Of course, she doesn't bother me when I'm actually busy but during breaks and in between? She really loves playing around in her own way.

According to her, the sex is some of the best in her long life but it's the game that she finds so fun. The little things, expressions, gestures, sexual innuendos, and the romance that is endlessly attractive to her.

To be fair, I think that goes for most women, but Virgo is the perfect mix between a literal maid and mistress. She is my life partner and holds a piece of my heart, but she refuses the position of girlfriend, wife, or mate.

It wasn't a big deal, but it irked me for a while until one day, I got her to open up to me about the reason. Aside from her actually enjoying her position, she said she had learned many lessons over her long years and that unless I was no longer mortal, she couldn't accept a position as my wife.

And that doesn't mean having a longer lifespan but real immortality.

She has had many masters over the long years, apparently elves existed long ago, and she had a single female master for almost four centuries, someone she thought of as family, but she still passed with age.

Virgo might not show it, but I could feel the vast emotions buried deep within her. She has truly let go and lived in the present with me, enjoying true happiness and being completely open, but that doesn't mean her scars are not there.

At the time, I just held her after she got out her reason. I didn't give her an answer, but I know she felt my resolve over our bond.

I was going to find a way to become immortal, not cursed like Zeref but truly immortal, she knew I would react that way but couldn't stop the small amount of hope that bloomed inside her. No words were said that night and we just held each other until the sun came up and got back into our daily routine.

Becoming immortal was a goal of mine, but it was one I would achieve with my own hands. How? Well, there might be a few ways, but I'm a potion master right?

What was the famous words from snape?

'Bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death'.

A potion master is one who can achieve anything with the right combination of ingredients, processes, and magic. There are no limitations on potions, only limitations on the brewer and what they have available to them.

So, I happily added becoming immortal to my list of long term projects. I have a nice section of my journal dedicated to short and long term goals. There is something satisfying about writing down a goal, accomplishing it, and then crossing it off a checklist.

Humming to myself, I got to my front courtyard and started stretching while making a mental map of where to go.

'Okay, juniper berries. The closest location for them is two mountains over, the one that looks like a drum. That means passing through four territories.'

The Mirage Mountains were a massive place and teeming with magical beasts, plants, ingredients, and many other things spread out over the range.

And the climates are all mixed up so you could go straight from a tropical forest to a snowy mountain top by walking in a straight line. There is even a volcano closer to the center.

The range is shaped in something like a large circle if you were to look at it from above and it sits in the center of Fiore. Crocus lies just out of the south western outer area of the mountains.

You can think of it like a VERY large donut.

The inner ring is the Mirage mountains with dozens of climates contained in their own territories. The body of the donut is a fog covered land that is filled with a crazy number of natural traps and dangers along with insect type magical beasts.

And on the outer ring of the donut, lies a calm section of mountains that are safe for young mages or civilian hunters, no magical beasts live out there and its where I first woke up, albeit on the north eastern end.

The redwood forests, or the snake den, is located a ways away from the fog but still well within the southern side of the mountains. Using a magic carpet, I could get to Crocus, if traveling in a straight line, withing a few hours.

The territories between the snake den and the fog are taken by magic beasts that are predominantly the food source for my kids.

The long armed wind using apes, Uni-Horn bear's, Magma rats, Baron tigers, Run-Away goats, and Sand Hamsters are the ones who live in that area.

The wind apes used to inhabit the redwoods before we moved in along with that giant eagle but that's old history.

Between my current destination, the drum mountain, and the snake den, lies the territories of four magic beasts.

The tropical rainforest, home to the Troll Kong's, massive gorillas who find their prey through scent and vibrations in the ground. Extremely territorial.

After that is the rocky terrain where few plant life grows that belongs to the Rock Wolves. Wolves with earth magic, specially of hard rock types, that cover their bodies in sturdy armor that does nothing to slow them down. They have enhanced senses and move in packs.

Then comes the swamp snake's territory in the swampy bog area. They are not really snakes but more of worms who live under the swampy water and wait to spring up with their massive mouths full of razor sharp teeth and swallow their prey whole.

As you approach the mountain, the ecosystem returns to the regular forest type. The difference however is that the area is littered with small and large ponds of crystal clear water and home to a variety of turtle type beasts. They mostly don't bother anyone, but they are dangerous beasts to anything that decides to attack. I don't count them among the opponents I am about to face.

The real fourth foe for me today is the Gerald birds that live on the drum shaped mountain. They are an avian terror sporting five heads and a savage disposition that has earned it the nickname Reaper of the Skies. They are the natural foe to the turtles living around the mountains and are constantly fighting.

This mountain range was one hell of a mess of ecosystems and I loved it. I considered the trip I was about to take as a good survival workout.

'You know, I should really look into greenhouse magic tools.'

I have wanted to make a greenhouse for years but thanks to all the specific climates of these ingredients, it makes it hard to grow them.

Putting those thoughts away for my next trip to Seven, the leading kingdom in magic tool crafting, I finished my stretches and started a steady jog in the direction I needed to go.

Along the way, through the woods, I waved to Edd who was riding on Ed's head like his usual lazy self and laughed at the comedic way he tried to get Ed to turn in my direction. Ed was eating something and not paying attention.

I saw Azure and Celeste as well, but I just waved and kept going, I make time to spend with them when I can.

Seeing the boundary where the redwood trees cut off into a tropical rainforest, I took a deep breathe.

'Requip.'

Within seconds, Starlight was on my right hand, my left was gripping a dagger made from the black bones of the special skeleton I found years ago and crafted by spirit smiths, and a metallic facemask was equipped to my jaw that covered my chin, mouth, nose, cheeks, and it extended on my left side and covered my ear with a metal piece containing two lacrima crystals.

The purpose of the mask was three-fold. One, its enchanted to keep a steady train of clean oxygen funneling into me to negate the effects of various changing climates from sapping my stamina. Two, it prevents me from being affected by any airborne potions I may use. And three, the earpiece was equipped with a two special lacrima crystals.

The first was an invention I thought up and had made by the same craftsman who made my coffee machine. It was a device that connects to a communication lacrima and allows me to answer any incoming calls I may be receiving on my lacrima. It's limited by the distance, but it turns out that as long as I am the one using it, my mana won't stop it from connecting to my requip space that holds the communication lacrima. If someone else were to hold it and stand next to me, it wouldn't connect. That was an interesting side effect. Of course, the device can only connect to a single communication lacrima orb so I have it set to my private line which only my close friends or premium VIP's can contact.

The second crystal was a gift from Lyra the silver key celestial spirit. It seems she was a close friend of Virgo's and often spent time in their dimension playing music to cheer Virgo up. After a few years with Virgo, I had a chance to meet her and she gifted me with a lacrima crystal embedded with some of her power as the highest celestial spirit of music. It holds only one function, and that is to allow me to recall any song I have heard before and have it play back through the crystal.

It's a marvelous thing and one I was truly grateful for. One thing you don't think about when wanting to go to a new world is that back on boring old earth, humans made music into an incredible art.

Here in this world, full of magic and fantasy, music is actually pretty advanced, Laxus has shown me plenty of his favorite rock bands. But to be honest, they don't hold a candle to some of my favorites from my past.

I flowed my mana into the crystal and allowed it to connect with my mind before thinking of the song I wanted, and it began to playback in my ear.

[Thousand Foot Krutch - Untraveled Road] (AN: Listen along if you want to feel more into the story.)

The ground cracked beneath my heel as I launched myself through the divide and picked up my pace to a high intensity sprint.

With my heart rate increasing and the feel of the heavy humidity on my skin, I kept a calm analytical mind and kept my magic sense open in a circle of 50 meters.

I could open it farther but kept it within 50 meters when I needed to concentrate. The farther I push it, the less I can mentally process and the greater my mental energy gets drained leading to headaches. But it's a work in progress, the amount of clarity I have compared to the older version was unreal and I am making progress through daily meditation.

I could close my eyes and still move without any limitation.

Sprinting through the forest, my senses flared as two large creatures entered my range.

Kicking the ground, I flew like an arrow into the tree's and changed course slightly.

As I grew closer, the first of the Troll Kong's appeared before me. Five meter tall giant apes with four arms, covered in teal colored fur, and having a sense of smell that could put trained police dogs to shame.

My eyes flashed as I requiped two yellow vials into Starlight's middle and ring finger attachment before the chains came alive like twin serpents and shot out like vipers to bit into each beast.

*ROAR!*

*ROAR!*

They gave off their battle cry before taking a step and falling forward, knocked out cold.

I like a hunt just as much as the next guy, but I don't like unnecessary massacres. For any beast that I can help it, I tranquilize them with my own brew. One bite and even five meter tall magic apes go down in seconds, even though it only lasts an hour, it's more than enough. And the best part? It's cheap and easy to make in large batches so I keep a steady supply in requip space.

Pushing past them without slowing down, I heard multiple roars respond to the ones that just passed out.

Why did I confront them in the first place? This is Troll Kong territory; I would be smelled any second no matter what I did. Better to lower their numbers now for when they come after me.

The next fifteen minutes were a blur of movement as I swung among the tree branches, dodged massive tanks of flesh, tranquilizing who I could, and danced a blood pumping dance of survival.

Spearing my arrow chain to a tall tree, I reeled myself in while avoiding two charging Kong's and watched in satisfaction as they crashed into each other and began to brawl.

From my current altitude, I saw the territory line from the rainforest to the stony area and used my momentum to glide through the air.

My senses warned me of an ambush lying in wait ahead of me, they knew I had to cross the divide to escape, so I smirked and started spinning while letting out line on my weighted chain ball.

With each rotation, I increased the weight on the ball and as soon as I broke the tree tops, a small ball with the weight of a wrecking ball smashed through a line of trees to smash into a dozen apes guarding the divide.

*RROOOARR!*

I'm sure at least two died in that attack while the rest were cushioned by their unfortunate fellows. I said I wanted to avoid a massacre, not that I wouldn't kill anyone.

The survivor's angry roars were the last I saw of them as I entered a new land covered in rock and stone. The humidity from the forest was changed to a dry heat and I felt the moisture being sucked out of me.

'I'm going to need to hydrate soon.'

*Awoo!*

Only my magic sense saved me from being wolf food. These beasts blend in with their surroundings perfectly, even masking their mana signatures to certain degree with the environment.

Six massive wolves covered in stone armor shot at me in a U shaped formation.

I smashed the ground beneath me and shot forward to the two wolves directly in front of me.

As their claws swiped at me from both sides, I twisted in the air, appearing parrel to the ground, as their claws slashed through the air below and above me.

I raised both hands to each side and twin magic circles flashed, one in each hand where a finger sized water ball formed, shaped like a drill, and shot forward with tremendous speed to pierce right through each wolfs forehead.

As my feet touched the ground on the other side, I didn't stop moving as their fresh corpses fell behind me.

The wolves' armor was too thick for me to use chains, blades, or tranquilizers and my best solution while moving quickly was to use magic attacks.

For another fifteen minutes, I did my best to avoid the wolves, but their damn natural camouflage was messing with my senses and they kept getting closer to me.

It was ugly and brutal, but I had no choice but to pepper them with water bullets that drilled through their armor and fire bullets that exploded on contact.

For the ones that got to close, I mainly used a mixture of my knife and my body to redirect them away from me using their own momentum and force.

It was taking me too long to break through their numbers and it was frankly starting to bother me.

'Enough.'

With both hands, I created a single magic circle, one for fire and other for water, and shot them both in stream while spinning.

The effect was a nice steam explosion that pushed anything around me away.

With the moment of time, I pulled out a vial from my requip space and controlled the liquid inside to explode out with water magic.

Then, taking control of the liquid, I dispersed it in a mist in all directions catching every wolf in my vicinity and causing them all to fall asleep.

It was a sleep potion that if used in such a way, could affect the wolves by having them breath it in.

'*huff* Finally, I can take a second for some water.'

First the humidity of the rainforest and then this dry heat was getting to me, like being in a wet then dry sauna for too long.

Quenching my thirst, I took a minute to observe my surroundings and smiled at the sight of close to two hundred rock wolves passed out or dead.

Behind me, along the path I came, almost all the fallen bodies were dead. Even if I wanted to have mercy and aim to cripple versus kill, they would only be killed by the pact as weak. It's a harsh world among beasts.

Deciding to move before any more decide to come investigate, I made my way through the area and changed songs while I had a moment.

[The Score – Stronger] (AN: Again, not necessary but feel free to join along.)

Bobbing my head as I ran, the rocky terrain gave way to the swamps where the Swamp Snakes lived.

I spit on the ground when I got there.

'These things are an insult to snakes, I'm calling them swamp worms from now on, fuck the magical beast encyclopedia.'

They hid beneath the waters of the swamp and since most of the ground was covered in dark murky water, visitors wouldn't be able to tell where to walk and will likely step into pits of water and be swallowed whole by the swamp worms.

I scoffed at this one.

'Not even going to be a decent workout.'

Channeling my magic, I once more used water and fire to solve my issues.

Using water magic, I created a rain of thin water drops to create vibrations on the water's surface to hide myself, then I used it in conjunction with telekinesis to allow myself to run across the water surface.

As I ran, I used fire magic to hit the water and create steam before controlling the steam with water magic and spreading it around me to create a strong fog.

I made it to the other end of the swamp in twenty minutes with only two attacks on my person due to bad luck rather than messing up my technique.

Still, they died quickly. One was stabbed through with my arrow chain before I turned the chain links into blades with chain magic and sliced clean through the worm. The other died from taking a steam explosion point blank when I just launched fire at the water it came out of.

Moving on, I came to the normal forest and ignored it for the most part. My magic sense picked up numerous strong magic sources in the bodies of water I passed but like usual, the turtles didn't try and mess with me.

It didn't take long to reach the drum mountain, a more of cylinder shaped mountain with steep inclined goat trails going up and down its sides. At different points of the mountain, the land flattens out and then continues up at smaller cylindrical inclines. The final picture is something of a layered cake with multiple cylinder blocks stacked on top of each other.

I took off, jumping from one ledge to another and having some fun with the old school free hand rock climbing.

Well, I did until I heard the telltale cry of a Gerald.

*Squawk!*

Looking up, I saw my first Gerald of the day. Giant orange feathered birds with a round spherical ball shaped body and five heads with long thin necks.

They stand at around 9 meters tall and thankfully, their only enhanced sense was their sight.

It wasn't too hard to simply lower my mana signature, done by suppressing the amount of mana emitting outward from the body, and drawing it into your mana core, and then sneak past the dumb bird.

They are annoying birds that seem to love a good fight and act similar to berserkers, they just keep charging and attacking until they win.

So, unless I can kill one silently, which I doubt I can considering the five heads, I would only be drawing the whole flocks attention from over the mountain.

Making my way up, I marveled at the view from up here and enjoyed the scenery as I kept climbing.

About twelve minutes at my current pace later, and avoiding another two birds, I reached the first layer of the mountain and climbed up.

The first layer was large enough to have its own forest and it was the main area where the Gerald's inhabited. The upper layers of the mountain were for the older and more powerful Gerald's. It's also where the berries I needed were.

The first few times I came here, I would have been lucky to find one or two bushes not picked clean of juniper berries by the young Gerald's who can't fly yet.

Up higher however, that's where you can find them in large quantities. Plus, the higher the altitude they grow at, the better their quality.

I had been to the top before and that where I was aiming for right now.

Avoiding the dumb birds colony was simple enough through the forest and the subsequent one of the second layer but by the third one, I was spotted by those down below while climbing.

*Squawk!*

*Squawk!*

'Well fuck.'

Seeing them flying up at me, I summoned as many rain drops as I could, which with my control and mana stores was quite the large amount in the thousands and had them spin at the best speed I could with such a number before willing them all to fall. Gravity did a lot of the work for me, but I helped it along to create a guillotine of death for the damn birds.

The front line ones were hit first and thanks to the quantity I used over quality, they weren't shredded, but they were injured severely and the fall they were experiencing would kill them. They did have their own magic resistance after all.

The move bought me enough time to climb up to the fourth layer, the second highest, where the air was already becoming thin due to the altitude.

The surface area of the fourth layer was only an eighth of the first so it wasn't hard to find bushes full of my prize. I carefully harvested them into jars I prepared in advance and got a move on when I heard the older Gerald's who lived on the layer's coming out of their nests at all the commotion going on below.

By the time I was on the wall climbing to the final layer, I saw the massive twelve meter tall dark orange birds with battle scars covering their forms. They were the strongest of this territory aside from the alpha.

Every territory has an alpha. Even the one's I passed through, but they didn't come out and usually live in the center of their territory.

The Troll Kong's have their Silverback, the eldest ape full of silver hair.

The Rock Wolves have their alpha, a massive wolf, three times a normal one's size. Once in a while, a rare rock wolf will reach a certain age and strength and their stone armor will turn into sand armor. The sand is condensed and constantly moving and regenerating from the surrounding earth, so they are very hard to take down.

The Swamp Snakes or worms are said to have an alpha, but I've never seen it. I rarely ever bother going near that swamp.

The turtles and Gerald's both have an alpha as well. For the turtles, it's the Crush Turtle, a massive beast with razor sharp teeth and a spiky metallic shell that's among some of the hardest known materials. For the Gerald's, it's a fifteen meter tall seven headed bird, a rare mutation among their species but the one's born with it are raised to be the alpha by their peers.

For the snake den, I'm considered the Alpha even though my eldest could have the title if he wanted.

On the way up to the final layer, I created a nice layer of fog that blended well into the clouds hanging low around the mountain. It covered me from the sharp eyes of the giant birds looking for the intruder in their territory and allowed me to reach the last layer in peace.

The last layer was simple with a large cave where the alpha lives, a few pockets of water collected from the rain, and an assortment of plant life that thrived at these altitudes.

I smiled at the sight of my prize, a large grouping of Juniper Berry bushes.

'And look at this quality, these will be perfect for some of the higher end potions I have trouble with.'

The ones from the fourth and third layer were for my main stock while I usually keep the high end ingredients for my personal stash. What kind of potion master would I be if I didn't save the best stuff for myself right?

*Loud step sounds*

*Loud step sounds*

I smirked at the sound coming up behind me. I could feel him coming before he even left his cave.

'Song change, [All Good Things - For the Glory].'

I stored away my jars, stood up, and turned around while patting the dirt off my hands.

"Been a while, hasn't is buddy?" (Dante)

"*slowly rising angry noise*"

Internally chuckling, my hand fell by my sides in a ready position as starlight and my black dagger were glowing slightly with mana.

Seven heads and fourteen eyes were staring down at me with nothing but slowly rising wrath.

The tension grew thick as its beastly mana came off in pressure generating waves and hit my own which I released with only a thought.

Unlike mana suppression, where you draw your mana into your core to lower your presence and mask your power, the opposite is to release your mana outward from the body and allow the sheer condensed pressure to weigh down on the surrounding ethernano.

An extreme example is what Gildarts did to Natsu in the S class exams. Another example is Natsu, who unconsciously does it by lighting his surroundings on fire as the mana leaving his body is incredibly condensed fire ethernano particles.

For me, it comes out as a heavy pressure like what happens in bleach when captains release their Riatsu. I did say I focused on expanding my mana reserves and enhancing my control beyond any other mage right? Well this is the sheer force of those reserves plus a refined control that allows the pressure to be released without making me a popped balloon and letting all my mana leave my body.

As the tension reached a climax, I smirked.

"Well, come on then."

The alpha needed no more prompting.

*SHRIEK!*

Seven heads launched at me like missiles with beaks that could poke a hole through steel aiming to spear through me.

I may have forgotten to mention it, but I have an interesting history with this alpha. I have come here for juniper berries at least a dozen times and this alpha never manages to catch or really injure me which only seems to drive its wrath to higher and higher heights every time it sees me again.

Focusing my mana sense to just the area around us, I spun through an opening and got close before punching straight into the main body with starlight.

A loud bang resounded as my fist indented his gut and my two injector chains bit down to inject two entire vials of tranquilizers into the beasty.

A talon came out from its leg and forced me away from the alpha who didn't waste any time and spewed three different magic attacks from its mouths at me.

Gerald's, like any other magic beast, have access to magic abilities. They are a species of birds that learn first how to spew fire, then when they get older, they generate the ability to spew poison, and finally, only an alpha has the ability to spew lightning.

They are agile for their size, can move their necks like close range missiles, and with their magic attacks, they are a deadly bird.

Three different colored attacks shot at me like cannonballs and I responded in kind to each attack.

As someone who spars with Laxus, I never feared lightning as I had multiple ways to deal with it.

With only a thought and a large application of mana, a dozen copper cauldrons appeared in my surroundings. They were small sized but had very long legs and stuck up into the air to create lightning rods which drew the attack to them and dispersed it.

For the fire, I had no hope of taking control or redirecting so I dodged, right into the path of the poison attack which I took head on.

The alpha seemed to smirk at Its success before I came out unscathed and gave the bird the finger.

"You think your puny poison is better than my kids? You couldn't kill a baby Runespoor with that level of poison!" (Dante)

Even if you ignore my mask that can filter poison before I breathe in, my constitution potions were made with poison from my eldest, unless you could bypass that extreme lethality, you are not going to hurt me that way.

*CCAAWW!*

The giant bird didn't take the insult well and charged while spewing more attacks.

I just repeated my process a few times, dodge the fire – tank the poison – ignore the lightning. The dumb bird wasn't interested in mixing up its attacks. And I'm sad to say that many human mages are the same way, they all believe that if the first attack didn't work, they should just keep trying the same strategy until it does. It's sad how little versatility you see but then again, that's another reason why S class mages are so rare.

'Come on, how long does it take for the tranq's to kick in?'

I never really tried to kill this dumb bird. It would set the Gerald's into chaos and it's easier when I know what I will have to deal with in the future. But thanks to the raw amount of mana it possesses, the potion was taking a while to break through and put the damn thing to sleep.

I said it before, but potions work by seeping into mana pathways. If a mage or beast wants to fight the effect, they have to use their own mana to mount a defense and work to eliminate it from their system. Of course, if the target is weaker magically then the potion could work in seconds like it did with the Troll Kong's. Those things had magic, but they were more physical beasts with passive magic.

After a good ten minutes of back and forth fighting, the alpha finally showed weariness and slowed down enough for me to drop a steam bomb and run away in the fog.

I laughed at the outraged roar behind me and the random magic attacks being launched but that laughter died a bit as I reached the edge of the layer only to see a line of elder Gerald's.

'Well fuck me.'

*Shriek!*

*Caw!*

*Shriek!*

Wasting no time, I dashed for the opposite end of the layer and jumped over the side. It was the side that did not have layers beneath it and extended all the way to the bottom of the mountain.

Behind me, a line of birds launched their fire and poison attacks my way like a deadly rain.

I dodged left and right by using small boosts of fire like burners from my feet to push myself through the air.

It's not exactly flying but a controlled decent while falling.

Behind me, I launched wave after wave of raindrop shaped arrows while mixing in the occasional potion to add random effects to their numbers.

As the ground grew closer, I aimed for a large pond and flared my fire magic in bursts to slow myself enough to safely dive straight in.

Of course, this was the turtle's territory. Various assorted colored and species of turtles turned my way and thankfully, took one look before going back to their things. They weren't interested unless you intended harm.

That disinterest lasted only a few seconds before the long ranged attacks of the Gerald's hit the water.

As soon as the turtles recognized their mortal foes, they all roared a battle cry and launched for the surface to start off a commonly seen territory war.

Me on the other hand? I just swam to the other end of the lake, thankful that my mask can filter oxygen from water and allow me to breathe without issue and broke through the surface well away from all the chaos.

As I caught my breath while kneeling on the shore, a voice spoke out and completely caught me off guard.

"Well, that's something you don't see every day." (?)

My head snapped up and magic sense flared to life back to catch the visual and magical sight of someone I most definitely recognized, even if they were younger.

What appeared before me was a girl my age, at least sixteen years old, with bright green hair in a bob cut with bangs that fall to just above her eyes. On her head she wore some kind of headband that had two purple cross shaped objects sticking out and silver cross shaped earrings hung from her ears.

I would describe what she was wearing but that would be difficult since she was currently completely nude, reclining on a beach chair, and holding a tanning mirror despite her pale white skin.

I took an appreciative look at her well-endowed body.

'That is one hell of an early rising body.'

She cocked an eyebrow my way and smirked.

"Done gawking or do you not speak English?" (?) (AN: I am an English speaker so that's the language I'm going with here. I don't use Japanese words to scream magic attack names as well. Fair warning.)

Her words snapped me out of my thoughts, and I coughed.

"*cough* my apologies, I think you can understand how I could be caught off guard here." (Dante)

She tilted her head at that.

"Why is that?" (?)

If I didn't hear the honest confusion in her words, I would think she was teasing me.

"I just dove off a mountain, started a territory war between two mortal enemy species, and walked up a shore where I stumble on a beautiful girl tanning in the nude, in the middle of a closed off danger area." (Dante)

She tilted her to the other side and a small blush came to her face.

"You think I'm beautiful?" (Dante)

My eyebrow twitched.

'Did she just ignore the rest of what I said?'

"Well, you're not too bad yourself stud." (?)

'And now she is hitting on me? What a weird situation to end up in.'

"Thank you milady." (Dante)

Still, I gave her a small bow and decided to ignore her for the moment to use water magic to pull the water from my clothes and body before using fire magic to dry myself off like a hot air dryer. If I heard her make a pouting noise at me no longer soaked with water, I didn't say anything.

I just requiped out of my muscle shirt and into my loose Gi while storing my mask and pulled out a chair to sit down next to her while offering her a drink much to her happiness.

Hey, no one ever said I didn't know how to read a mood and adapt. If she wanted to play vacation girl, I was happy to kick back for a moment, besides, there wasn't any hostile intent coming from her.

As the sounds and sight of magic beasts fighting in the distance resounded out, I turned to her.

"So, perhaps introductions are in order. My name is Dante, how about yourself?" (Dante)

I had a good reason for giving my real name.

She returned my look with calm eyes.

"Brandish U." (Brandish) (AN: I know it's not really U but Burandisshu Myū doesn't sound great and I don't know how to make that weird U symbol so deal with it.)

My expression didn't change but I was glad to confirm my guess.

'Here's another sign of an AU world. She was supposed to be Lucy's age.'

"It's a pleasure Brandish, can I ask why you're in such a place?" (Dante)

As I asked, my magic sense was focusing on her. Even if someone intentionally pulls in their mana to reduce their presence, I can see what they are hiding if I focus on them. On the other hand, they can escape my senses if I don't focus on them.

Hidden behind a surprisingly decent amount of control was a mana core with reserves that made me internally whistle.

She couldn't match up to myself, but she was a match for Laxus at the moment in reserves. (AN: I want to point out that in canon, if Laxus did not get seven years of time taken away from him, he would have been able to match the majority of the Spriggan twelve in magical power, not counting August and Irene. I know Fairy Tail won the war but there was so much nakama bullshit involved with them winning through luck and plot armor. If it were a real match, they would have been rekt. That seven years though, that would have logically made a huge difference.)

Brandish shrugged and continued tanning without a care for her nudity.

"My teacher had an errand to run in Crocus, so he dropped me off here when I asked for a chance to relax in the sun." (Brandish)

'He's here!? Well, I guess no one could stop that monster if he wanted to move around.'

"So, he just left a beautiful young girl like you in such a dangerous location?" (Dante)

Her eyes narrowed at me.

"Are you calling me weak?" (Brandish)

I didn't flinch and waved my hand.

"Not at all, you can act all lazy if you want but you can't hide your strength from me. Your more than capable of handling yourself, I was just wondering why he would choose here versus the beach for example?" (Dante)

Her eyes began analyzing me for a moment before she went through a strange cycle of twitching her eyebrow, tilting her head, and then randomly deciding to blush and look away.

'I don't think I want to know what's going on in her head right now.'

"We aren't exactly from around here, so we need to stay low key. What are you doing out here? If I didn't literally see you fall from a mountain top, I wouldn't even think you were a mage. Your mana is annoyingly well concealed and only your handsome body that looks like it was carved from marble is a sign that you have some form of training." (Brandish)

I noticed the topic change and let it go. I wasn't here to interrogate her or anything.

"Ha, very few could match me when it comes to control." (Dante)

Her mood changed rapidly again.

"Is that a challenge?" (Brandish)

I shrugged.

"Not really, you're not exactly on my level." (Dante)

She clicked her tongue and turned over to lean on her side, giving me a wonderful view.

'How is this sixteen? She could put a twenty year old porn-star to shame.'

I didn't show any sign that it bothered me, and she pouted.

"That's no fun, are you gay or something?" (Brandish)

I chuckled at that one.

"Haha, no. I just have a very good amount of 'Control' in many ways." (Dante)

I finished with a wink and watched her blush.

"Muu… it's no fun being the teased instead of the teaser. And I'm naked for Pete's sake, do you know how nice this body is? You have to be gay." (Brandish)

"Do you want me to prove my attraction to you? And what's with this attitude of wanting to be assaulted?" (Dante)

She seemed to consider that for a moment and eyed my crotch.

"Hm… can't say I wouldn't enjoy a good show and ha, it's fun to see men get riled up but they would be in for an interesting treat if they tried to assault me." (Brandish)

She proved her words by flaring her mana pressure and I met her with a flare of my own to offset it much to her annoyance.

"See, how can you have that much control! I've been training under a sadistic teacher for years to get where I am. And he is one of the most powerful mages in the world." (Brandish)

I raised an eyebrow at her small tantrum and couldn't help the instinct to pat her head from how cute she was acting.

'Hm.. soft hair.'

"There are many monsters in the world Brandish. If you don't want to be eaten up by them, you need to become one of them." (Dante)

After speaking I realized I was still rubbing her head and took my hand back with a chuckle.

"haha, sorry about that. Force of habit." (Dante)

She sat up and gave me a curious look while ignoring the head pat, she didn't seem to mind.

"You think of yourself as a monster?" (Brandish)

I shrugged and countered.

"What's wrong with being one?" (Dante)

She tilted her head and thought about it.

"Hm, I guess there isn't anything wrong with it. But that would mean I'm alone in the middle of nowhere, completely nude, and defenseless at the mercy of a monster." (Brandish)

She weakly pretended to look scared.

"Are you going to eat me up?" (Brandish)

I felt my eyebrow twitch and flicked her forehead. The fact that she actually managed to notice my hand movement and tilt her head back slightly to offset some of the force impressed me.

"Ow." (Brandish)

"Are you that desperate for some action woman? And what's with this fantasy vibe you're giving off of wanting to be assaulted by a wild creature?" (Dante)

She pouted and looked like she wanted to cry for a second.

"NNuuu. You have no idea how desperate I am right now! My teacher is an old stooge and treats me like his precious granddaughter, I can't talk to a guy my age without them running off in terror when he finds out! It's suffocating!" (Brandish)

She slapped my shoulder in frustration with enough force to break a civilian's arm.

"And what's wrong with wanting to live out your sexual fantasies! Have less control and use that sexy body to assault me. Now." (Brandish)

I nodded in sympathy at the first part but flicked her forehead again at the second.

"Woman, you just told me about your teacher and then tell me to get with you? Are you trying to get me killed?

And chill, you're way to thirsty, it's sad." (Dante)

She held her forehead with both hands and grudgingly looked at me.

"You try training for years and have no sexual outlet. Teasing is the best I can do for satisfaction…" (Brandish)

Rolling my eyes at her. I decided to satisfy her a bit and reached over to pull her in and seal her lips much to her surprise, but she melted into it a moment later.

I'm not a man whore but seeing such a magical strong woman so desperate was sad. There is no telling what mistakes she would make in the future to get off and regret later on.

Her arms wrapped around me and I deepened the kiss, rolling my tongue around hers in a dance of dominance.

'If her personality is the same as Canon, she has an M kink.'

My hand on the back of neck lightly grabbed her hair and I pulled her back a bit to bite her lower lip gently before pulling back as she moaned out lightly.

As she was still in a trance, I smirked at her.

"Are you pacified a bit now?" (Dante)

She snapped out of her trance and blushed heavily, turning away a bit meekly.

"Mn. Thank you." (Brandish)

I nodded.

"I'm happy to assist but I'm not going farther than that, I have things to do and I'm sure your teacher will be back soon. Besides, we just met and your no whore Brandish. Cherish your body more, you're a strong and beautiful woman." (Dante)

She nodded again and I internally sighed.

'Maybe her M kink is a bit bigger than I thought.'

"Perhaps you should put some clothes on?" (Dante)

She didn't argue and picked up something from the ground that I couldn't make out before I realized what it was when clothes appeared in her hands. She had just shrunken them and put them aside.

Still, her fashion sense wasn't very different from her future self, just a different size and color.

She wore a bikini with a full body cloak with fur around its rim and a pair of high heels. And you can't forget the choker with chains that helped to hold up her bra.

'Is she wearing that because she gets off on the feeling of being choked while holding the weight of her breasts? If so, she is basically Virgo's ideal toy.'

I made no comment on her wardrobe and she seemed to come back to herself and go back to lazing on her chair.

"Hm.. that was a great first kiss. Don't forget to take responsibility Dante~." (Brandish)

I raised a finger in question at that.

"What exactly does that mean? I have heard many women say that and I would like to hear a specific answer." (Dante)

She tilted her head in confusion.

"Hm.. I'm not sure. My best friend Dimaria said that's what I should say at moments like these. I guess I want you to take care of me when I come back for more and if you can't supply, you need to find me another outlet." (Brandish)

'What kind of logic is that?'

"That's an interesting perspective. Remind me to have a talk with your friend in the future." (Dante)

Seeing her nod without a care in the world I sighed.

"As for your other point, don't go around telling any guy that unless you want to be taken advantage of. Honestly, where do you get your knowledge from?" (Dante)

She responded without hesitation.

"Shojo manga." (Brandish)

My face couldn't be more deadpan if I tried.

"*sigh* Brandish…. Real life doesn't work that way." (Dante)

Her face showed lazy shock.

"Really? That's disappointing." (Brandish)

"Do you know of any strong willed females back home you can talk to?" (Dante)

She nodded.

"My mother should be visiting her hometown right now, so I wouldn't be able to see her since I spend most of my time with my teacher back home, miss Irene is around however." (Brandish)

I pretended not to know who that was.

"Good, when you go home, go ask her to tell you how relationships work in real life. Sexual and romantic." (Dante)

She seemed to think on that before nodding.

"That's not a bad idea, I wonder why I never thought of it." (Brandish)

"That's not a difficult mystery. I've known you less than an hour and I can say it could be because your lazy or because of your overprotective grandfather like teacher." (Dante)

A lightbulb seemed to go off for her.

"Ah, that's probably it." (Brandish)

I had to rub my forehead at this conversation.

'How does one turn out like this? Is this what the Nara clan was like for others?'

"Well, I have some more time and you're the first guy my own age I've talked with for this long. Entertain me." (Brandish)

I shrugged and decided to satisfy her.

For the next hour, we just chatted and got to know one another a bit better. I told her I made potions since it wasn't a big deal considering she lives on another continent and she told me where she came from after I promised I didn't belong to any government body.

Why should I care if Alverez wanted to invade Ishgar? It's not my problem unless I become endangered. Of course, if my close friends ask for help, I might step in but for the most part, it's not my problem.

I'm willing to deal with things like the magic council because they are a direct threat to myself. And If I want to reap benefits by using my future knowledge, you can bet I will.

She even mentioned her mother who works for the Heartfilia's and told me a bit of her life story. (AN: This is AU, I changed her story.) Apparently, in this world, her mother was from an island in between Ishgar and Alverez. In her youth, she came to Fiore and found work with the Heartfilia's, becoming close friends with the young heir, Layla.

Later on, when she became pregnant, she returned to her home island and raised her daughter for a few years until her magic became a danger to them when she woke her magic core. Thankfully for them, her current teacher was nearby at the time and sensed her power before deciding to take her as an apprentice.

Her teacher stuck around for a few years to allow her to stay with her mother before taking her away at twelve back to Alverez where her training really began.

She is still able to visit her mother, and they plan to stop by on the way back to Alverez. She seems happy with her current life, if not a little annoyed at how overprotective her teacher is.

It made me internally think if certain events will still come to pass, such as her mothers' upcoming murder.

I would come to know the answer soon enough and under circumstances I wouldn't expect.

But anyway, it was a nice time and by the end of our hour, we could both say we were friends.

Standing up and stretching a bit, I stored my chair and tossed a golden card over.

"That's a premium VIP card for my business. Feel free to give me a call if you need help or a custom potion. You will find my fee's and hours on the card.

Congrats for being among the few chosen I have given that status to." (Dante)

Her eyes shined at that and she stored the card in her bra much to my amusement. Brandish was innocent in some ways, and an airhead in others, but she want stupid, with August, the OP as fuck genius mage and true son of Zeref as her teacher, I would eat my shoe if she was truly stupid.

She understood the value in having a potion master on call.

"Thank you. I'll give you a call if I need something or just to hang out when I'm passing through. I would love to see the home you talked about." (Brandish)

I told her I built my home inside a tree, but I didn't say WHERE that tree was located, and she didn't push for it.

"It would be my pleasure Brandish, remember to have that talk with Irene. I'll see you around." (Dante)

I gave a smile as I walked away in the forest and activated my teleportation formation to take me back home.

My timing seemed to be blessed because not five minutes later, a different magic circle shown next to Brandish and out came the man and legend himself, August.

"Ah, Brandish, I can't tell you how happy I am that you decided to wear clothes this time. You're going to make my heart give out one of these days." (August)

Brandish stuck her tongue out.

"It's more comfortable with less clothes. Is your business in Crocus done?" (Brandish)

August nodded.

"Indeed, I was checking in with my contact here, it seems an old noble family by the name of Phenex that was supplying us with information was wiped out in a single night. It seems I can't underestimate King Toma in terms of wisdom." (August)

Brandish giggled at that.

"You sound so silly speaking like that when you could take down the country all on your own if you whished." (Brandish)

August ran a hand threw his beard.

"Perhaps dear but not everything in life is so simple. Now, before we get on our way, what's with all the commotion over there?" (August)

He asked while pointing to the other side of the lake where the territory battle was still going strong.

Brandish considered what to say, whether to admit to having a new male friend her age or not and recalled the kiss he gave her, her first kiss, and subsequently decided that having him hunted down by her teacher wasn't an attractive idea.

"*Shrug* It looks like a territory battle or something. They started up over an hour ago." (Brandish)

August hummed and continued rubbing his beard in thought for a moment before he blinked and released mana pressure across the entire distance of the lake. Every turtle and bird froze in primal fear and didn't dare to move until the pressure passed and they all fled back to their homes.

Brandish poked August.

"Was that really necessary?" (Brandish)

August chuckled.

"Just a bit of fun my dear, besides, I like to end bloodshed when I can." (August)

Brandish nodded.

"Now, let's get moving, we should have enough time to stop and see your mother. I'm sure she has missed you." (August)

Brandish's face lit up at that and she nodded and followed him into a magic circle that appeared beneath his feet.

"Oh and teacher, before I forget, I want to talk to Irene when we get back, is that ok?" (Brandish)

August didn't know why but he felt a shudder run through him at those words. Still, he wouldn't turn down such a simple request.

"Not a problem my dear, Irene should have plenty of time these days." (August)

Brandish smiled and hugged him.

"Yay! Your awesome as always gramps." (Brandish)

August smiled and patted her head but internally, his feeling of dread only grew.

'Why do I feel like something terrifying is going to happen in the near future?'

*Line Break*

Appearing back in my courtyard, I made my way inside while wondering how odd that meeting had been.

'Running into a future overpowered antagonist, giving her a first kiss to shut up her weird fantasies, and then becoming friends with said person. Another all-star has joined my VIP list…'

After playing with the thought, I just shrugged.

'Eh, whatever. It's not my problem, I'm just a guy running his business here and living his life.'

Feeling satisfied with that, I put the topic to the back of my mind and walked inside with a big smile.

"Honey! I'm home!" (Dante)

Virgo stuck her head out of the kitchen.

"Welcome home master, did you have a fruitful trip?" (Virgo)

I sighed at her response.

"*Sigh*, it's supposed to be 'welcome home, dear'." (Dante)

Virgo tilted her head.

"That would be unbecoming of a maid." (Virgo)

I was about to argue when I saw the smirk on her face and chuckled while coming up behind her, wrapping my arms around her and kissing the stuffing out of her.

"I think my maid wants to be punished." (Dante)

Virgo put a hand on my chest and pulled away slightly with a flush.

"Master, you went to gather Juniper Berries correct?" (Virgo)

I nodded with a slightly confused look at the topic change.

"I did, I got a good haul this time as well." (Dante)

Virgo tilted her head to the side.

"Then why do I taste someone else on your lips?" (Virgo)

I froze at that.

It's not like Virgo would be mad but how do I explain this? She doesn't appreciate lying and she usually likes to be informed of any sexual encounter so she can join in.

"Um… I can explain?" (Dante)

Her eyes were penetrating me.

"Please do master." (Virgo)

I wanted to but there was a problem.

"Virgo, I can't explain if you're taking off my pants." (Dante)

She gave me a serious look.

"You can explain while I do my duty. It's obvious I haven't properly attended to your sexual needs if your finding random women without telling me about it. Now, go on, explain." (Virgo)

Feeling her hands on my shaft wasn't helping me think clearly. Seeing her kneel before me really wasn't helping. And having her off hand gripping my sack REALLY wasn't helping.

'*sigh* This is going to be a long conversation. I hope today was the last surprise for a while.'

*Line Break*

July 5th – 4 days later.

As it turns out, fate didn't want to let me rest because that morning, as I was drinking a nice cup of morning coffee and meditating in my room in a bathrobe, my security system picked up an irregularity and notified me.

'Hm? An intruder? Is it another magic beast trying to move in on our turf?'

Moving over to my desk, I checked the lacrima screens and enlarged the one going off.

'Oh, you have got to be shitting me.'

On the southern side of the snake den, the area where a large lake exists and is the home to Iris and Jade, my two daughters had just apprehended a rare intruder.

A young woman I could recognize in a heartbeat despite her current youth compared to her canon appearance.

'*sigh* First Brandish, now Ultear? Thanks life, thanks.'

Quickly getting dressed in my usual Gi, I made my way out.

"Virgo, we have an unwelcome guest, would you like to accompany me?" (Dante)

Virgo appeared from a room and nodded.

"I'm ready master." (Virgo)

I nodded back and ran out the door with her on my heels.

'No fucking way I'm going anywhere near another woman without Virgo there. Fate knows some cliché situation will occur and I will have to deal with an irate Virgo again.'

It took fourteen hours, fourteen full hours to sexually satisfy her before she let it go. She wasn't mad because I kissed another woman, she wouldn't care who I wanted to have sex with, she cares that I didn't tell her about it before it happened as my partner in life.

She takes it as her personal duty to be involved in my relationships as my personal maid, mistress, and life partner.

And ever since that night with Revy where I finally let go of holding back when I didn't have to, she only got wilder. As a celestial spirit, it's almost shocking how much she holds back as to not hurt people thanks to how much of her power she has access to with all my mana.

Making our way through the forest, we quickly approached the lake. With our speed, the large forest is just a fun playground.

Iris and Jade, my two beautiful Horned Serpent girls turned at our approach and quickly sped toward us before wrapping around us, Iris with me and Jade with Virgo.

"Hey girls, did you miss us?" (Dante)

*Hiiisss*

"Oi, oi, watch the horns!" (Dante)

Iris wanted attention and tried to place her head against my chest to quickly which forced me to maneuver so her horns didn't impale me.

*Hiiss*

I chuckled at her look.

"*sigh* you used to be so cute and adorable without these sharp horns but now my little girls are fully grown beautiful women. What's a father supposed to feel at this sight?" (Dante)

Iris's grip around me gently squeezed like a hug and even jade came over to comfort me while Virgo just laughed at the sight.

"These two have you wrapped around them despite them literally being wrapped around you. That's my girls." (Virgo)

They hissed at that and bobbed their heads in acknowledgment much to my amusement.

"They're my daughters, they can do whatever they want, and I will always love and treasure them." (Dante)

I declared my words with a puffed up chest and zero shame and we all laughed in our own ways.

Looking over their heads, I saw a young woman out cold on her back.

"So, who wants to tell me what happened?" (Dante)

Iris and Jade looked at each other and hissed before they broke off and began using charades to re-enact the scene.

They were smart girls and after a few yes and no questions, I got the gist.

The young woman, who I was sure was a young Ultear by her looks, had walked into the territory, apparently already exhausted, cut up, and covered in blood and dirt.

The she attempted to drink from the lake or refresh herself, and Iris moved behind her invisibly and knocked her out cold while Jade alerted the security lacrima so I could come.

I also got the impression that they didn't know whether to kill the intruder because it was the first time a human came by compared to usual random magical beast.

I pat their heads and praised them for their success.

"Good job girls, you performed perfectly, and I couldn't ask for anything better. *sniff* they grow up so fast, come here girls, you both deserve more hugs." (Dante)

At my dramatic act, my girls just sat coiled up next to Virgo and to my shock, they each held up a signboard.

Virgo: 8

Iris: 6

Jade 6.5

I fell to my knees in pain.

"I have failed you." (Dante)

The sound of snickering made me raise my head and get glomped by all three of them in a massive hug.

"Silly man." (Virgo)

*Hiss*

*Hiss*

I smirked at the impromptu family hug. I easily saw Virgo handing out signs, I just wanted to play it up for fun.

"My girls are so cruel to me, that's it, I'm turning this car around and taking you all home." (Dante)

Despite the intense weight of my girls, I easily stood up and started carrying them away back to the house.

*Hiss!* (Jade)

"No, I don't care if one of you needs to watch the lake, I want some family time." (Dante)

*Hiss!* (Iris)

"No, I don't care if I'm being unreasonable." (Dante)

*HISS!* (Jade + Iris)

"Master, I believe they are trying to remind you of our guest." (Virgo)

Virgo spoke up from her spot on my shoulder where she didn't try to fight back. I blinked at her words and turned back to see Ultear still lying on the ground.

'Oh, I actually did forget about her for a moment.'

"*Cough, right, Iris, be a dear please." (Dante)

I swear they all gave me deadpan looks but Iris still flicked her tongue in my face before going to wrap around Ultear and begin flying behind us.

As I have said before, their gems acted as a focus for flight and invisibility magic.

We traveled back home, taking a bit longer as we were walking, and had fun family bonding along the way.

It's only in moments with our kids that Virgo shows her strong motherly side her zodiac sign is known for.

It's a beautiful sight and whenever she catches me looking at her, she adorably blushes and looks away much to my amusement.

On the way back, I diagnosed Ultear and once we got home, I had Virgo take her to get cleaned up in the baths while I went to my lab to prepare a few potions to heal her.

I was very interested in why she was here after all, but I had a decent guess. And her trip here was anything but smooth.

She was physically exhausted from lack of sleep, constant fighting for her life, and not having enough food or water. On top of that, she was mentally and magically drained considering she is most likely a mage that leans more towards magic than the physical side of things.

Not to say she was weak physically if her physique was anything to go by, but she was definitely a mage who leaned toward the magical side of things.

I had to prepare a mix of potions that she would be able to handle.

Contrary to the idea that you can just drink as many potions as you want, there are rules to think about. Some types of potions are longer lasting and will violently react to another potion. Some are too intense for a weak body. Others require time in between before being able to safely take a second dose. There are all kinds of reactions to potions and it's a master's job to understand how to make and use them properly.

For Ultear, I had to make a potion that would boost her natural recovery of mana and mental energy rather than simply having her drink a mana potion since her body is too exhausted to handle it.

For her physical wounds, I would have to make a health potion into a cream and apply it topically with bandages.

Both recipes were simple.

Coming up to my silver cauldron, I got the fire going to heat up some water and used telekinesis to pull out the required ingredients, letting them fly across the room from their drawers to sit on the table next to me.

Crush six snake fangs into a powder using a mortar and pestle.

Experienced hands finely crushed them without issue.

Add four measure of the powder.

The powder was raised telekinetically and added slowly as the cauldron was stirred with an oak spoon.

Toss three mint leaves in.

Three leaves were plucked from their pot hanging from the ceiling to fall into the cauldron.

Pour four drops of a moderate grade mana potion.

A prefilled space vial containing around twenty vials of such a potion was used to draw out exactly four drops.

Heat the mixture to 250 for ten seconds.

An application of fire magic had the flame turned up.

Stir counterclockwise twice and then leave to brew for 13-25 minutes.

As that brewed, I took out a health potion, some Merlap Essence, and a premade jar of balanced whit colored skin cream.

The cream is easy to make at home for anyone and it's basically a blank slate for me to mix anything into it to achieve different effects.

I poured two vials worth of moderate grade health potion, crushed the Merlap Essence into a paste, and mixed them into a bowl. To get a nice mix, I created a small chain with chain magic with a blender shape end before spinning it at a high speed.

I can still use chain magic to create chains but it's weak compared to what I can do with Starlight. For home situations however, it works just fine as a multi tool.

The cream turned a nice pink color, and I was satisfied with it.

And just as I finished, the cauldron was ready for the next step.

Add 4 horned slugs.

Horned slugs were a type of plant, not real slugs.

Turn off the flame and add two porcupine quills.

Porcupine quills were not hard to find but not fun to harvest. Those little bastards have large tempers on them.

Stir five times clockwise, and then three times counterclockwise.

And finally, the last step. At my current level, anything below advanced grade was child's play for the last step.

Hitting the right moment, the mixture flashed and settled on a sedate light blue color.

'Perfect.'

Taking what I needed in a glass vial and storing the leftovers in a space vial, I made my way to where I could sense Virgo and Ultear were.

I entered one of our guest rooms to see Ultear in a robe and cleaned up while lying on the bed unconscious. Virgo was standing to the side waiting for me.

"She is ready for your treatment master." (Virgo)

"Sorry for the trouble Virgo." (Dante)

"Not at all master." (Virgo)

I patted her head and smiled as she leaned into my touch.

Moving over to the bed, I looked down at Ultear and studied her more closely than the first time. I was a bit distracted by my kids back at the lake and on the way back.

Plus, considering why she was probably here, I wasn't feeling very welcoming.

Just like her future counterpart, Ultear was a pale-skinned woman with dark purple hair and deep brown eyes that I saw when diagnosing her.

And even at sixteen or seventeen, which is the age she seems to be at, she already has a voluptuous figure.

'What the hell is with this world? Is this DxD or something? What's with all these girls having bodies that could put models to shame in their teen years.'

"She has a beautiful body." (Virgo)

I absentmindedly nodded at that before realizing who said it and giving her a side look.

Virgo was staring at Ultear and appreciating her figure with a good deal of interest.

'Right, she's bi.'

Ignoring that weird feeling of wanting to fist bump someone, I refocused.

When I found her, she was wearing a similar combat outfit to her future self with a skin tight sleeveless battle suit divided into three colors and exposing her upper back. On each arm, she wore gauntlets that contained half a dozen mini lacrima stones she would use with her magic to create her characteristic weapon.

Considering that outfit was ripped up enough to look like rags, it was tossed away, and she was left with the bath robe Virgo dressed her in.

"We should get her wounds dressed and bandaged first." (Dante)

Virgo nodded and we got to work.

I wasn't shy with dealing with a patient who was naked, no matter how beautiful, it comes with the job after all. Being a potion master is pretty much like being a part time doctor.

And I had enough integrity to not grope an unconscious woman. Looking on the other hand, any self-respecting man would do, but anything sexual is where I draw the line. Rape isn't a joke.

It only took fifteen minutes to have all her wounds cleaned, dressed with the cream, bandaged up, and redressed. The actual healing has to be done by her body naturally, but the cream will speed it up tremendously.

As I lifted the vial of the mixture I made her, I paused.

'I'm going to have to make her be a little more honest if I want answers here. She is dangerous one with words after all.'

I pulled out some veriterism and added a few drops of truth potion to the mixture. Just enough for the effect to be subtle.

Virgo raised an eyebrow at my action and nodded.

Putting a hand behind her head, I gently lifted her up a bit and used telekinesis to lift the liquid and pour it down her throat. I did it slowly and carefully so as to avoid her unconsciously flailing or gagging.

While I worked, I couldn't help but marvel a bit at her beauty. Unlike Virgo who has a beauty and charm that exudes her otherworldliness as a spirit and immortal, Revy's wild beauty, and Brandish's naïve, submissive, and airheaded beauty, Ultear has a mature and refined beauty. One that she naturally gives off.

Checking with my magic sense, I saw the potion seeping into her pathways and taking effect. The magic from the truth serum went to her brain along with the mental recovery aspect while the mana recovery seeped into her core and began to soothe the pressure it was under before it doubled its absorption speed of ambient ethernano.

'Good, it's all taking proper effect. She should be fine now.'

Placing her back on the bed, I removed the robe and tucked her in so she could rest properly.

The beds in my guest rooms are incredibly comfortable, I just never have a reason to use them since my bed is bigger and better.

My personal bed is so comfortable, it makes even Virgo who full heartedly enjoys being a maid hesitate to get up in the mornings.

Taking out a surveillance lacrima, I placed it on a shelf and connected it to my main system. I had no plans of risking her moving around while I was busy.

With that done, I headed out into the hall and instructed Virgo.

"Keep an eye on her for today, she shouldn't be waking up until tomorrow morning at the earliest, but it never hurts to be too careful." (Dante)

Virgo nodded.

"Understood, what should I do if she tries to escape?" (Virgo)

I smirked at her hopeful expression.

"Punish her as you wish but keep it light." (Dante)

Her eyes lit up and she looked at the door to the room in what I could swear was anticipation.

Inside said room, deep in unconsciousness, Ultear shivered for reasons she wouldn't be able to understand yet.

*Line Break*

The next morning, I was once again meditating with a cup of coffee, but the differences was that I was in my normal clothes and sitting on the window sill of the guest bedroom with said window open to allow fresh morning air to flow in.

To Virgo's huge disappointment, Ultear did not awaken during the night and slept peacefully. I sent her off to bed in the early AM hours of the day and took over watching without hearing any protest from Virgo.

Celestial spirits do not require food or sleep to survive. But they are both things that they love to experience and emulate. They can taste food just like humans and sleep with refresh them, but they could potentially stand like a statue for a thousand years as long as mana was supplied.

That doesn't mean I allow Virgo to act that way however. She is my life partner, and I will demand that she enjoys life to the fullest extent while with me. I want to see her smile and shine like the incredible woman I know she is.

Its adorable to see her internally fight between her desires for mortal things and her desire to be the perfect maid. That's why she goes so wild with sex, because they both coincide with her other desires. To get love and pleasure while also fulfilling her self-imposed duties of being my mistress.

"Mnnn…" (Ultear)

I was broken out of my fond thoughts by the sound of my guest stirring from her slumber.

Her eyelids twitched a few times before they opened to reveal strikingly deep brown eyes covered in haze as she was waking up.

"*Grooan*"

I chuckled at her zombie like actions and spoke up gently.

"Did you sleep well?" (Dante)

She was still half asleep and nodded cutely.

"Mn." (Ultear)

I nodded.

"I see, how's Hades these days?" (Dante)

She absentmindedly responded while raising her arms to stretch out like a cat.

"Mnnnn~ he's good, cranky as alwa….. !" (Ultear)

Her eyes shot open as her brain processed the words being spoken and she tried to rush to stand only to get my hand placed on shoulder.

"Easy there girl, do you want your wounds to re-open?" (Dante)

She would have reacted to my hand, but she winced as it seemed I spoke to late because one of her bandages turned red.

"And now we have to dress that again." (Dante)

She blinked away her pain and stared up at me and her surroundings, analyzing everything she could.

"Where am I? Who are you? And where are my clothes!?" (Ultear)

I rubbed my ear at the volume of her last question. It seemed she just understood she was naked under her blanket.

'Sheesh, I guess not every girl is as carefree as Brandish.'

"In order, you are where you were aiming to go, I'm the guy you were searching for, and they were ruined so I threw them out." (Dante)

She gave me an angry look at that.

"Do you know how expensive those clothes were! I could have repaired them in a second!" (Ultear)

I rolled my eyes.

"No, I don't know how expensive your sorry excuse for a combat suit was, why would you ever where something so silly to a fight?" (Dante)

Her anger rose at that.

"Silly!? Why the hell should I care for your opinion! Most of everyone else who has seen it has nothing but good things to say!" (Ultear)

I gave her a deadpan look.

"That's because of your body you moron. Any straight man who looks at you wearing that is going to tell you your god's gift to mankind. But from a combat perspective, you might as well have gone in naked. Or I guess you could pull off the amazon style if physical combat is your thing." (Dante)

Her anger abided somewhat at the offhand compliment and her eyes narrowed.

"Explain why you think it's so poor." (Ultear)

I knew she was trying to buy time to get her feet under her mentally, but I didn't mind. She has that truth serum still running in her and it will make her act and speak more honestly than she intends to. Thanks to the way it was administered, it would take a full twenty four hours before the effect ends.

I gave her a soft smile.

"Sure, but how about you let me deal with that wound while I speak, or I will have more work to do later to keep you alive." (Dante)

She looked down at her side injury where the bandages couldn't hold back the blood anymore and started leaking and seemed to think hard for a moment before grudgingly nodding.

"Fine but keep your hands away from the goods!" (Ultear)

I sighed and nodded.

"Don't worry, I have more control than to assault an injured girl no matter how beautiful she may be." (Dante)

I saw a light blush appear before she schooled her expression and turned to the side to allow me to sit on the bed.

I pulled out some bandages and the health potion cream and got to work gently unraveling the old bloody bandage.

"To answer your earlier question, your old outfit left much of your upper body exposed, which is an incredibly poor choice unless you're a close combat specialist aiming for agility. And even then, there are many options for tight clothing.

Second, the material was shit. Yes, it was durable and looked nice but what are you trying to do? Seduce someone or fight for your life? If you are expecting a fight, especially a hard one against magical beasts, you chose poorly.

And finally, I'll give you points for the gauntlets, but you really came out here in heels? They might be combat style heels but still, are you a princess or a double agent spy for an evil megalomaniac? You need to think about more things than politics and playing with old people." (Dante)

She actually did process my points well and seemed to see the logic in them, but the last part made her eyes harden and start releasing killing intent.

I matched her eyes while my hands kept moving.

"Ask yourself if you really want to follow through with that?" (Dante)

My mana pressure flared, focused specifically on her and not the room, which is a great show of control, and she struggled to breathe while her eyes grew wide and dilated before I pulled it back in and finished with her wound.

As she caught her breath and tried to think of what to do, I stepped back to give her some space.

"I will say this now Ultear Milkovitch, I know who you are, and I don't care. I don't belong to any government; my only interest is in finding out why you came looking for me, and how you found my location. Was it on the council's orders or Hades? Answer my questions honestly and you will find no threat from me." (Dante)

She just kept staring at me, not sure what to do for once. I pulled up a chair and waited for her to calm down.

A few minutes later without me doing anything and she seemed to regain her voice.

"Well, I think I might have reacted a bit strongly, this all caught me off guard. This entire mission has been a bizarre experience from the start." (Ultear)

I smiled at seeing she was calm again. The Ultear I know from canon had many issues, and they were strong in her adult self, but before me was her younger self that had yet to reach that point. And considering how other characters I knew had AU lives, she might surprise me as well.

"How about you start from the beginning, and would you like some refreshments? I am curious but I have no interest in seeing you suffer if not necessary." (Dante)

She was about to nod but paused and gave me a wary look making me sigh.

"*Sigh* It was just an offer; I have no interest in poisoning you girl. If I wanted to do anything to you, I had all of yesterday to do it." (Dante)

Giving her a light dosage of truth serum is not technically poison, so I didn't contradict myself, I did indeed do it while I had the chance yesterday.

She nodded.

"My apologies, I am very… un-used to being in others care. Especially someone with a reputation as a potions master that is known far and wide, even if your age makes me question that." (Ultear)

I smiled at that and got up before bowing slightly.

"Ah, I hadn't introduced myself. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Ms. Milkovitch, the name is Dante Ouroboros, the mysterious potion master, at your service, sort of." (Dante)

Before anyone gets grumpy with me for giving out my identity so often lately, they were all in good cases. Brandish lives off continent and if she considers me a friend from our short time together like I believe she does, she would rather hide our meeting. Both for her own enjoyment and because she is surprisingly loyal to those she calls friends.

For Ultear, she already knows that I know her secret, so she isn't likely to go blabbing even IF she escaped right this moment, which is something that has a .09% chance of happening. That positive percentage is if Hades appeared from the sky right now on his flying ship and attacked. And I made sure she didn't have any tracking magic on her.

She seemed to regain her bearing somewhat at a formal introduction.

"It's an honor Mr. Ouroboros, you already know who I am it seems, please call me Ultear." (Ultear)

I smirked at her bearing.

'She is a natural.'

"Only if you call me Dante, now, I'll ask again, would you like something to drink?" (Dante)

She hesitated before ultimately nodding.

"Yes please, coffee would be nice if you have it." (Ultear)

I nodded and made my way to the door.

"I'll be back in a moment. Take a breather and calm yourself." (Dante)

As I opened the door, I turned back slightly to add one more thing.

"Oh, and please try not to escape. Aside from opening more wounds, my home is your only safe zone until you make it past the fog. Not that you would make it out of the woods alive but still, please stay and rest." (Dante)

I didn't wait for her to respond and went downstairs to make her some coffee. Halfway through the process, I sighed as I saw her jump out the window with my magic sense.

'*sigh* why do they always run? You tell people one thing, and they do the other, is she trying to kill herself?'

*KYA!*

A cute scream reached my ears as I casually opened my front door to see Edd staring down Ultear and hissing while of course, riding on Ed's head.

Ultear had made it all of two hundred feet before running into my kids who were passing by.

'Talk about bad luck, I would have given her at least half the forest to get caught. I'm sure my eldest, Ray, would have been amused from his perch.'

I walked up to the where Ultear was frozen on the ground covered in the bed sheet and admonished her.

"Honestly, did you think I was trying to scare you or something? And look at your body woman! You opened three wounds." (Dante)

Ultear's eyes fearfully snapped toward me.

"What the hell is this! I've never seen monsters like this before!" (Ultear)

I walked past her and flicked her forehead.

"Watch your tongue, these are my kids you're insulting." (Dante)

She grabbed her forehead and winced before her voice came out utterly confused.

"Kids…?" (Ultear)

Ignoring her, I patted Ed's middle head which approached me.

"Hey big boy, thanks for helping out. You two Edd, you looked very fierce. Try to walk, or er.. slither, on your own for once would you? You're going to get fat if you keep being lazy." (Dante)

*Hiissss* (Ed)

*HISS!* (Edd)

Ed hissed in pleasure as I rubbed his head and was happy at the praise while Edd's heads and tail shot up in displeasure. He doesn't mind being called lazy, but he is strangely sensitive to being called fat.

"Don't give me that tone young man, you know how lazy you are. You need to exercise once in a while." (Dante)

*Hiss!*

Three heads turned away from me in defiance, but I just smirked.

"Perhaps if someone got some exercise, I might be willing to make some BBQ…" (Dante)

I left the statement open and I was internally laughing at the sight of Ed's three heads looking excited while Edd had two head looking away now and one firmly looking at me. His right head betrayed his other two and I openly laughed when they began to quarrel.

Ed seemed used to this attitude and dropped its left head lightly on the center one, effectively bopping Edd on the head hard enough to make him calm down.

*Hiss.*

He nodded and I praised him for it.

"That's my boy, give me five laps of the forest and it will be BBQ for dinner." (Dante)

Edd slithered up to me and wrapped around my arm and leg before gently squeezing and slithering away on its own.

It's a snake's way of giving a familial hug.

"Why don't you go keep him company huh?" (Dante)

Ed nodded and his massive body slithered after him.

Giving them one last look, I turned around to see Ultear just gaping open mouthed at me.

'*Sigh* I feel like I'm sighing too often these days? *sigh* am I getting old or something? Ultear's future self was so composed and refined while her younger self shows many of those traits but is still quite rough around the edges. She is not used to being in situations she cannot comprehend.'

Bending down to her, I spoke and broke her from her trance.

"Are you done now? I need to treat those wounds. Again. Unless you want to die of course. I can dig you a nice grave and leave flowers every day when I'm home." (Dante)

She pouted and looked away.

"What the hell is going on, I can't make sense of all of this." (Ultear)

I smirked at that and put an arm under her legs to carry her and began walking back to the house. She looked uncomfortable at the contact for a moment before leaning into me slightly and relaxing.

"That is what morning coffee is for my dear." (Dante)

I was happy to see her laugh slightly at that. It was the first smile I had seen so far.

*Line Break*

Back in the guest room, with Ultear properly chastised, rebandaged, and with a cup of steaming coffee in hand, she began her story.

She had plenty of questions but decided to try and figure them out as she talked.

"To start with, I am a special agent of the magic council and my mission was given by the council. It seems that their lack of intel on you has driven them into a rage and some of them wanted to *chuckle* put the fear of god in you, or is that fear of the law? I don't think they know the difference." (Ultear)

I shared in her laugh at that. The council will have its reckoning soon enough.

"And how did they know where to find me? Also, what about Hades?" (Dante)

Ultear held up a hand in a 'wait' moment.

"I'm getting there. The council head, a large fat man named Crawford, had a magic called Super Archive. With it, he can find anyone in Fiore's borders just by searching up their name.

As for my master, he mentioned interest in you and told me to keep an ear open on the council. When I was given this mission, I thought it was my chance to improve my standing on both fronts." (Ultear)

I felt like internally smacking myself over the head for missing Crawford's magic.

'I forgot about that. *sigh* I'm not invincible, I can forget things, but I should try and do better.'

My internal thoughts were kept separate from my external facial expressions and Ultear pouted at not getting a rise out of me for her big reveal.

"Pu, your no fun. Anyway, he ran into a few issues with finding you. For one, I'm assuming Ouroboros is a name you created? He has issues with searching for people based on such vague names. He would need your first name and if he can see a picture of you, he would be able to get a lot more progress. But even then, you leave very little to work with and he has been incredibly frustrated because of it.

From what I was told, after years of on and off effort, he managed to pinpoint your location to this danger area, the Mirage Mountains, and an approximate location somewhere in the south.

But then again, this is THE Mirage Mountains here. The natural barrier of fog messes with his magic just as it does anyone else. He apparently used some lost magic spell to boost his magic enough to find what he has and even then, there was apparently a price to pay, not that I could figure out what it was much to my annoyance. I would have loved to find out what that fat tub of lard paid." (Ultear)

Seeing her genuine emotion made me smile. The truth serum only lightly opens a person up the way I administered it. It's not forcing her to speak, just be less guarded.

"Good to know, and how did you pinpoint that vague clue to where I found you?" (Dante)

She blushed at that and looked away for moment in embarrassment.

"I didn't…." (Ultear)

I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Sorry?" (Dante)

She sighed and ripped off the band aid.

"I didn't find you. I was stumbling through this god forsaken place for days when I found that lake and tried to rest for a rare moment.

The goddamn old fuckers were so sure of themselves that you would be in the area they found. It was all 'follow your orders Ms. Milkovitch', 'don't doubt us Ms. Milkovitch', 'you shouldn't question your betters, I'm a councilman', well that was all hot fucking air you bastards!

I had to push through that hellish fucking fog where I couldn't tell left from right or up from down, then there was the insect swarm, the sound of the crunch of their shells will haunt me for life, and then I was stumbling through this weird mountain range full of climates that have NO place being so close together and being inhabited by VERY territorial magic beasts I have never even heard of before!

After days of running for my life and barely sleeping or eating, I finally decided to try and rest while possibly tending to my wounds only to get knocked unconscious without any warning!

Then I wake up in a comfortable bed in an unknown location feeling better than I have in a long time with a stupidly handsome guy who was the goal of my mission to scare the crap out of me by knowing my well-kept secret identity, having a magical pressure that makes me want to hide in a hole, and for crying out loud, I was naked! I'm still naked! I can't get married now!

And the guy apparently has giant magical fucking snakes I've never heard of as kids. And they actually act like his kids! Nothing makes sense anymore!

RAWR!" (Ultear)

I gotta say, watching her steadily get worked up from her calm visage was oddly attractive. Oh, and incredibly entertaining. She was like a refined woman who turned into a lioness in rage.

"Do you feel better now?" (Dante)

She turned to me with wild eyes.

"Yes! Yes I do!" (Ultear)

I couldn't help it and started laughing at the sight. Ultear's hysteric and angry face melted as she joined me, and the room was filled with our laughs.

A few minutes later, we winded down.

"It seems you were pretty wound up there, how long have you been holding that in?" (Dante)

Ultear regained her breath and he smile turned a little artificial.

"Too long. I can't remember the last time I genuinely laughed like this. Being undercover for so long has been quite stressful, I think I forgot what it feels like not to wear a mask." (Ultear)

Just then, her eyes widened slightly, and she gave me a sharp look.

"Why am I being so honest? Did you do something to me?" (Ultear)

I gave her a small smile.

"I did not force you to do anything Ultear, you have my word on that. I only added a passive honestly effect to your medication. The only thing it does it to have you be more willing to speak honestly. It does not force you in any way. I needed to know if there was a threat to myself or my home, I'm sure you would do the same or worse in the opposite situation." (Dante)

Ultear held her look for a moment before slowly nodding.

"I probably would. I don't think I would be as kind as you have been to me to a prisoner. It's not that I enjoy torture, but I would do whatever I needed to do achieve my goals." (Ultear)

I got up at that and sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Is that how you see yourself right now Ultear? As a prisoner?" (Dante)

She looked up at me curiously.

"Am I not?" (Ultear)

I chuckled at that and shook my head.

"Not at all. You are currently my patient and guest. Had you lied to me about your mission, I would have considered adding you to my kids BBQ tonight, but you played your cards well." (Dante)

Seeing her face pale slightly, I flicked her forehead for the second time.

"I'm half joking. I don't take prisoners. Enemies are killed or plotted against while friends, clients and patients are cared for. Your one or the other as far as I'm concerned.

Since you were just an unwilling tool of multiple parties, I could just make you drink an Obliviation potion to make you forget the last twenty four hours and then drop you back on the other side of the fog." (Dante)

Ultear looked pensive at that while she held her forehead.

"Why do you keep flicking my forehead." (Ultear)

I smiled at her and spoke cryptically.

"Because you need it, in more ways than one…" (Dante)

She looked confused at that.

"What do you mean?" (Ultear)

I leaned back on one arm and thought of how I wanted this to go down. A breeze blew in from the window and caused my hair to dance around while my blue eyes stared up at the ceiling in thought. Unknown to me, Ultear got a bit lost in the sight.

Instead of answering her question, I decided to see if I could learn a bit about this worlds Ultear.

"Life is a beautiful thing you know? It's filled with interesting experiences, adventure and romance, just waiting there for you to take hold. But we are not alone, and the species we were born to is one that wildly conflicts in positivity and negativity. The cruelest creature to a human in existence is none other than another human being. We are a species with infinite potential for both kindness and darkness." (Dante)

Memories flashed to the front of my mind of the horrors I saw in my past life as well as the things I came across in this world. Humanity never changes no matter the world. Both monsters and saints exist in tandem while the majority act as sheep. In a world where saints are stronger, the sheep are kinder. In the opposite side, like my past life where corrupt politicians and the upper 1% reigned supreme, the sheep are darker.

Pushing those thoughts away, I turned back to Ultear.

"When we are born, we don't get to choose where we end up. But we all have the choice on how to live our lives. The problem is that if we have something that someone stronger than us desires, they may try and use us for their desires. In the process, we may begin to believe their desires are our own." (Dante)

Ultear raised an eyebrow at that.

"And you think I'm living for others desires rather than my own?" (Ultear)

Once again, I didn't answer her. There were many things I came to see in our short time talking, mostly thanks to my magic sense, and I wanted to see how this played out, but I had to do it carefully.

"How about this Ultear. I will answer your questions honestly, unless they are things that are off topic or personal, but first, tell me how you got to where you are now? What made you the young deadly spy rather than a normal teenage girl?" (Dante)

She gave me a guarded look.

"And why should I?" (Ultear)

I waved my hand lazily.

"You don't have to but if you do, I'll answer all those strange questions I'm sure are flying around your mind right now. Plus, I'll wave you patient fees. Getting VIP service from me isn't cheap you know." (Dante)

She looked bemused by offer but eventually nodded.

"Fine, but I'm not selling out my guild and I want all my questions answered." (Ultear)

I nodded with a smile.

"As long as they are on topic, I will." (Dante)

Seeing as I've been nothing but kind and caring to her so far, she took my word for it.

"Very well. I guess my story starts when I was born to a powerful Ice-Make mage in Iceberg…"

From there, Ultear went on to describe her early years and some of them were kind of fucked up.

Her early years with her mother were fun to hear about but Ultear's facial expressions were interesting to see, constantly changing between anger, longing, loving, and sadness. It was like she was recalling things she was having trouble with before.

Then she got sick. Her sickness was one that I actually read about in an old book when I was researching my magic sense. To those that don't know, it would seem like a sickness where a child's mana core matures to quickly and the body can't keep up leading to the body dying under the stress.

What the book told me is that it's actually a rare gift. It's an opportunity born only a few times in a century where the mana core mutates into a higher grade that can handle much higher stress levels and both absorb, convert, and store mana to a much higher standard than the normal mage. But the child needs to be taught how to properly the energy and modern day mages don't channel mana like I do. The majority use magic like barbarians and just throw mana around.

Fortunately, and unfortunately for Ultear, Brain, a mad scientist under the guise of a kingdoms head researcher had found out about her.

After she got sick, her mother gave her over to Brain's research institute in the hopes of a cure. The way Ultear described it, it was quite similar to what canon showed but in more of personal detail such as the kind of experiments Brain did on her as a seven year old child until she was nine when she escaped and tried to run back to her mother only to find her with a young Gray and Lyon.

She cried as she honestly spoke of how she felt heartbroken at the sight. About how something inside of her died in that moment.

She returned to the research center and the experiments increased in intensity until six months later, her internal mana exploded out in a massive eruptions thanks to brains new idea for an experiment that had raw ethernano funneled directly into her and the whole building was brought down.

Thankfully for her, the explosion of mana finally helped her core stabilize but Brain got away.

Not even a day later, she was found walking barefoot in the snow by Hades who brought her to his personal library to teach her magic and give her a goal to live for.

The next few years she skipped over as it was about her magic and her guild, things I didn't demand to know, and she ended with the boring but sometimes funny infiltration mission into the council.

As she finished her tale, I was hugging and comforting the poor girl.

'She still doesn't see the obvious holes in her story?'

When she calmed down and noticed our position, she placed a hand on my chest and pushed me away. I didn't fight her and backed away to give her space.

I just wanted to comfort her, not make her uncomfortable.

"That's my story, now you need to hold up your side of the deal." (Ultear)

I raised a finger.

"Wait, you missed a point. What was the goal you're aiming for now?" (Dante)

Ultear gave a fierce and slightly crazed smile when answering.

"To find Zeref of course." (Ultear)

My face couldn't be more deadpan.

"How the fuck will that solve anything?" (Dante)

Her face morphed into anger as she tried to think of a response and ended with a poor excuse.

"It's Zeref!" (Ultear)

Once more, key deadpan look.

"…"

"What!" (Ultear)

I charged mana into my finger for the third time today and flicked her forehead, a little harder than the first two times.

"OW! Why do you keep doing that!?" (Ultear)

"Because your being stupid. I'll ask again, how does finding Zeref solve your life problems?" (Dante)

She went to answer but paused.

"He… He will lead us?" (Ultear)

At her uncertain look, I sighed.

"Ultear, even if, and this is a big IF, you found someone who was born over four hundred years ago still alive today, if he were anywhere as powerful as the legends make us believe, he would never listen to the requests of children and fulfill them. You have no way of forcing him to obey and that's IF you found someone who has no right still being among the living." (Dante)

Of course, I knew he was alive, but it didn't change the fact that the S class exam arc invasion was downright idiotic. What the fuck was Hades hoping to accomplish?

Ultear looked lost and I felt bad for her. She really was brainwashed hard.

"How about we move locations to the deck? I'm sure you could use some fresh air and possibly some food." (Dante)

She broke out of her trance and nodded but then blushed a bit when she realized she was still naked under her cover.

"Can I have some clothes please." (Ultear)

Her voice came out lower than I expected, and I chuckled before grabbing a clean bath robe.

"You will have clothes ready for you when your healed but for now, wear this robe, it will cover you properly." (Dante)

She took it and I turned around to give her some privacy. When she was done, I picked her up once more and made my way to my deck.

"You know I can walk right?" (Ultear)

"Nope, no walking for you, doctors' orders. Besides, when will I get the chance to hold a beautiful dark purple haired woman like you in my arms like this again? I got to milk it you know?" (Dante)

She blushed and hit my chest lightly.

"Flatterer, what will you do if you end up charming me?" (Ultear)

I smiled at hearing her finally being comfortable enough to tease.

"Then of course I would have to confine you to this lovely home and pamper you day and night~." (Dante)

I considered it a win when I saw a bit of blood leak from her nose and decided to tease a bit more.

"Did you enjoy your fantasy?" (Dante)

She turned her head the other way, inadvertently giving me a face full of her silky dark purple hair.

"Shut up." (Ultear)

I just chuckled and continued walking.

Once on the deck, I put her on the circular couch and got comfortable. Ultear's eyes shined at the location.

"You have a beautiful home." (Ultear)

I smiled at her.

"Thank you, it is very special to me with many fond memories from the first moment I found this tree till now." (Dante)

I was lost in a thought for a moment and once again missed Ultear's staring at me before I refocused.

"Right, ask your questions." (Dante)

Ultear opened her mouth to speak but then shut it.

"Can I have some paper?" (Ultear)

I chuckled and tossed her a small notebook with a pen from my requip space. It was something I picked up to tear paper out of since my special journal doesn't allow me to do that.

As she wrote down her questions, I mentally reached out to Virgo who had been sleeping through the morning.

'Morning sleepyhead, what do you want for lunch?' (Dante)

It took a few moments before she responded.

'Mn… master, come cuddle.' (Virgo)

I honestly debated going through with that before my eyes fell on my guest.

'I'm sorry love, I will have to take a raincheck on that. Do you want to sleep until dinner? I promised Edd I would make BBQ if he gets some exercise.' (Dante)

Her tone had a pout in it in her reply.

'Mu.. master is mean. And yeah, your bed is too comfortable, I think I'll go back to sleep for now.' (Virgo)

I automatically corrected her.

'OUR bed love. There is no difference between who owns that bed.' (Dante)

She refuted that claim.

'No. Master owns me so we both belong to you.' (Virgo)

I sighed and we went back and forth until she dozed off. And just in time to because Ultear finished.

"Ok, I'm ready." (Ultear)

I waved her on.

"I'm all yours." (Dante)

"*Cough*

I have five questions.

One, why did you call me an unwilling tool for multiple parties.

Two, what was with the cryptic response to flicking my forehead. I know I felt you do something each of the three times you flicked me.

Three, where the hell did you come from? Your products literally popped out of nowhere a few years ago.

Four, how are those snakes your kids?

Five, why did you really want to know about my childhood? And don't try to bullshit me, I'm recalling a lot more memories than I have in a long time, what did you do to me?" (Ultear)

Listening to her questions, I thought of how to word things before speaking.

"One, two, and five kind of tie in together. I'll start with three and four.

I was just a young kid with a rough childhood and saw the darker side of life before my magic woke up and after a few discoveries, I traveled for six months in this mountain range before finding my current spot. Using my new recourses, I built a home, got much stronger, and expanded my business. That's all there is to it.

As for my kids, I helped them hatch from their eggs and raised them to adulthood." (Dante)

Ultear raised a hand and I chuckled.

"Yes student Ultear?" (Dante)

She smirked at me and asked.

"How old were you when you came here? You don't look older than me right now." (Ultear)

I shrugged and answered honestly.

"12." (Dante)

"12?" (Ultear)

"Yup, 12." (Dante)

She looked dumbfounded at that and I heard her muttering to herself.

"He did it at twelve while I almost died doing it at sixteen…..I've wasted my life." (Ultear)

I tossed a small ice cube at her and expected her to jump at the cold, but she didn't even flinch.

'Oh right, Ur's daughter.'

I did get her attention though.

"I'm a special kind of guy. Much like how you were born with a rare occurrence, I had my own. Anyway, let's move on." (Dante)

At her nod I broke into the rough topics.

"One, two and five tie together. Now, please remember, I have a very thorough network through most of Ishgar at this point. Even if I don't service as many clients, I still have very deep and thorough networks.

If there is a threat to myself, now or in the future, I will not stop until I have the information I need. The top dark guilds are an example of people I watch out for.

There are three prominent dark guilds rising to fame at the moment and subverting other dark guilds throughout the continent right now. Do you know who they are?" (Dante)

The future Balam Alliance was making moves already but they wouldn't reach their full potential until canon.

Ultear nodded.

"Of course, information gathering is my business. Aside from my guild, the other two are Oracion Seis and Tartarus. None of us have made any big waves to avoid attention for now but power plays are indeed happening." (Ultear)

I was satisfied with that.

"Good, I don't have to explain about them. Now, you're probably aware that your guild master is very old right now right? He has long since passed the age in which he should be moving around like that without special circumstances." (Dante)

Ultear didn't argue, she also understood that her master was incredibly old.

"Well, your master, the man named Hades, once had a different name. He used to be called Precht, the second guild master of Fairy Tail." (Dante)

Her eyes widened and she couldn't help but shout out.

"WHAT!?" (Ultear)

I nodded and ignored her volume.

"How is that possible!? Master Hades is a ruthless, cold, and calculating man. How could he be the guild master to such a light guild?" (Ultear)

I shrugged.

"People change based on their desires. I told you before, but humans have the infinite potential for both kindness and darkness. Precht was the one who sought kindness while Hades seeks darkness.

And that's not the end of my point. What not many know, is that after Hades changed his name and found a new path of magic, he discovered a young genius and decided to teach him a bit.

That child's original name is unknown but by the time Hades left, the child had the name of….Brain." (Dante)

This time Ultear looked afraid. Pieces of a long chain I have been trying to hint at repeatedly are finally clicking in her mind. Especially after I removed the chains on her own mind.

"Brain and Hades are two men with different goals but still on the same team. Do you not find it strange how Hades found you right after you escaped the second time?

And to answer question number two. Each of the three times I poked your forehead, I channeled dispel magic through my finger to break the spells placed on your memories and psyche. Someone decided to repress your positive memories and enhance your negative ones while not allowing you to piece together a puzzle your mind would have no trouble seeing otherwise.

As I shattered them one at a time, you should have felt more pieces of yourself being freed." (Dante)

As I spoke, Ultear just sat there frozen in shock. Her mind was seeing the logic in my words and seeing points in her memories where things should have been completely obvious to her and yet, she never once questioned them before.

"I asked you to recall you childhood because I wanted you to realize you had memories you didn't remember having. I wanted you to think of them once more.

And to be honest, I also wanted to know your story. When I first read a report on you, I wondered how in the hell an intelligence agent like you couldn't see your own story. It didn't make sense to me, so I dismissed you as crazy. It turns out you were just brainwashed." (Dante)

That was kind of true. I knew her past from canon and it was something I wondered about back then as well. How could very intelligent people make all these plans for Zeref but never fill out the part of what they want Zeref to do for them or how they will make him do it.

As for Ultear, I'm not bullshitting here. Using my magic sense, I was able to clearly see the foreign mana inside her skull. It wasn't visible to me when she was unconscious but when she woke up, it was clear as day to me.

And then hearing her story, I knew this was an unfortunate soul rather than an evil woman.

Seeing her just sitting there, confused, and lost, I decided to give her some time.

Standing up, I walked over and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Take a moment to think about everything I just said, I know it's a lot to take in. I'll go make us some food. Please don't try to run away again, your scream was cute to hear but my other kids might just eat first and ask me second." (Dante)

Despite her internal turmoil, she still managed a small smile at that and gave me a nod before sitting back and staring at the sky.

Leaving her alone, I went inside and made lunch while keeping an eye on her using my magic sense. If she really did run off, I would have to go get her but thankfully, she stayed put this time.

An hour later, I came up with lunch on a silver tray.

She was still in the same spot I left her, and I noticed tear tracks down her cheeks.

Placing the tray on the table, I crouched down in front of the poor girl and used a napkin to lightly wipe away her tears.

"It's ok to cry you know? There is no harm in it, let out all your feelings and don't keep them bottled up. What has been done to you cannot be changed but your present and future lays within your own hands." (Dante)

Her eyes were staring into my own and she heard everything I said.

I picked up a spoon and placed it in her hand.

"Now, the next step to life is to use your own hands to eat your own meal. You're recovering but you're not sick, I don't think you need me to feed you." (Dante)

She scoffed at that but smiled when she sat up. The smell of the food was calling her stomach and her stomach doesn't care what her brain and heart is feeling.

"What did you make?" (Ultear)

I brought over her tray and rested it on her lap. It had two legs that extended out so it could stand on its own over someone's lap.

"I give you, 'Tomato Basil Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons'. I could have made other things, but your body can't handle the heavy foods just yet. This soup should be perfect for you." (Dante)

Ultear looked at the beautifully designed bowl of soup and then to me before she started tearing up again.

"Thank you Dante, for everything." (Ultear)

I smiled at her.

'Poor thing has never had someone care for her since her mother. It's a shame I can't just tell her the truth about her mother but even for the excuse of saying it was information gathering, there's no way I could find out what Ur really felt.'

Ultear continued to cry as she ate, and I made no mention of it. Only offering her tissues and keeping her company while I ate my own meal.

When she finished, I telekinetically lifted the dishes to the table. Ultear just kept staring at her hands before she spoke.

"Dante, do you want to know what my true dream was?" (Ultear)

I turned to her and smiled.

"I would be honored to." (Dante)

She gave me a genuine smile in return before speaking.

"For the longest time, ever since I chose my magic path in the Arc of Time, my wish was to find Zeref so that he could help me turn back time to my childhood and be with my mother again." (Ultear)

I didn't say anything, I felt she wasn't finished yet.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry, I wanted to know why she left me, I wanted to know if she still loved me. But now? Now, I want to laugh at my silly dream. Magic is a wonderous thing, but not even Zeref could turn back time that far right? And even if he could, why would he?" (Ultear)

I had my own thoughts on Zeref and none of them were really positive. Sure, he's not an innately evil guy, but I think he's something far worse. He's a hypocrite of the highest order.

He goes around for four hundred years with unlimited mana, immortal youth, and his genius, and he complains of not being able to die while indirectly causing the deaths of tens of thousands.

He created demons, monsters, creations, all so he could die. But that's utter bullshit. With his resources, Zeref could have sent himself into sun or to the earth's core. Let's see him live through that.

He did not just want to die. No, Zeref wanted to defeat the god who gave him his curse. He wanted to make something with his own hands that could overpower the curse of a god. All to spite him, all to get his revenge.

Sure, he may have wanted to help Natsu, after all, he was cursed because he tried to revive Natsu in the first place. But the rest? I call bullshit if he could not find a way to kill himself.

"No, I really doubt it. I can ask an expert if you would like? How much time a single mage can affect if they gave their whole life to it? And perhaps what a mage of Zeref's capabilities could handle? I don't know if the second question could be answered." (Dante)

Ultear raised her head to me and nodded.

"If it's possible, I would like to know." (Ultear)

I shrugged and pulled out a silver key from my requip space. No need to wake Virgo for something simple like this.

"Celestial magic?" (Ultear)

I nodded.

"Many seem to forget this, but the spirits are immortal and have literally seen the rise and fall of kingdoms, empires, continents, and entire ages.

They have quite a vast collection of knowledge." (Dante)

Activating the key summoned my trusty bird friend. The one that I use to pick up mail from my unused house in Crocus.

"Hey buddy, can you do me a favor and ask that old librarian a question for me?" (Dante)

The little bird nodded excitedly. He always enjoys helping out and is a breath of fresh air.

As I took the notebook back from Ultear and began writing the question down, my bird flew up to Ultear's shoulder and looked at her in the eye before rubbing it's head against her making her chuckle.

"Affectionate little one aren't you? Thank you." (Ultear)

She gave the bird a small kiss on the head and it tweeted before coming back to me and taking the note.

"Just go get an answer and come back, is that ok?" (Dante)

While holding the note in a talon, the bird saluted me with its wing and flashed back to the spirit world.

"He was adorable." (Ultear)

I laughed.

"I'm sure you can find you own; those birds don't require much of an affinity for celestial spirit magic." (Dante)

Ultear sighed and shook her head.

"One of the down sides to using a lost magic is that it severely cripples your ability to learn other types of magic. Only magic I was able to use before I started practicing are viable for me to learn. Of course, I could learn a few tricks like that thought projection magic the council loves using. If those old fogies could learn it, why couldn't I? It was pretty easy once you know how it works." (Ultear)

Seeing her smile proudly was a good sign.

"Oh? Perhaps you can share it with me, I find the idea interesting as well. And just out of curiosity, did you learn possession or mental manipulation magic?" (Dante)

Ultear blinked at the random question and shook her head.

"No, I hadn't had the chance to learn to many types, I've been busy with everything else for years and had to choose what magic styles I would dedicate my time to." (Ultear)

I nodded at that.

'Well, there goes the whole Ultear brainwashed Jellal theory. I knew that was bullshit.'

Before I could say anything else, my key flared, and my little bird returned.

"Hm? That was fast." (Dante)

Under Ultear's quizzical stare, I picked up the note and blinked at what I was seeing.

"What does it say!" (Ultear)

Ultear wanted to know the answer to her slowly fading dream.

I just handed her the note and to my surprise, she burst out laughing.

The note from the librarian I asked read as:

[Dear Dante,

In regards to your question about how much time a human mage who dedicated their life to the pursuit of time magic could rewind it, let me put it to you like this, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME YOU FOOL! I don't need to consult the archive to answer your question, there have been numerous fools over the years wanting to rewind time with the various time magics out there. Outside of the god Chronos, every single mage who tried it died and was lost to time itself!

Entire lives were lost for the sake of no more than sixty seconds! In regards to your theoretical question of Zeref using it, I can only estimate that he would achieve no more than a few hours. And that is an impossible and phenomenal achievement.

Best of luck.

DON'T BE A DUMBASS.

Librarian]

The librarian is a nice woman, but this is the first time I saw her so heated up. She gave me a stern lecture when I wanted the magic tattoo info, but this was another level of her getting heated up.

Ultear's laughter slowly died down.

"Ah… I needed that." (Ultear)

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"The laughter or the message?" (Dante)

She flashed me a smile.

"Both! I think I needed someone to shatter that false dream of mine. I'm actually quite thankful that it happened now rather than late on in life. I might have lost things along the way but I'm still sixteen you know; I can still have a chance at a different life." (Ultear)

I gave her a genuine smile.

"Then allow me to be the first to congratulate you, Congratulations on breaking your chains Ultear, your life is in your owns hands again." (Dante)

Ultear blushed and for the first time so far, she approached me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you Dante, for waking me up and so much more." (Ultear)

I took her hand and caressed it gently.

"It was my genuine pleasure, and you can know you will always have a friend here if you need me. Oh, but any services I will still charge you for." (Dante)

She snorted at that and slapped my arm.

"No discount for beauty?" (Ultear)

I smiled at her for that, raised my hand, and gave her a thumbs up.

"When it comes to business, I'm an advocate of gender equality, everyone gets to pay." (Dante)

She cracked up at that and I followed soon after.

Ultear ended up staying with me for two more days to get fully healed up, long enough for us to spend July 7th of year 777 together alone. Virgo had to go back to the celestial realm for something important and I what it was that she couldn't talk about. I think she got a kick out of knowing I knew but knowing that she was not the one who said anything.

That day, 7 shooting stars flashed across the sky bringing the wave of canon dragon slayers to our time.

Ultear and I ignored all that and hung out, bonded, and perhaps grew closer than we realized in such a short time, we found out a lot of things we had in common, but a call from Toma for me and one from the council for her brought our short celebration to an end.

Ideas were discussed, plans were made, and by the time I dropped her off in Crocus, Ultear was 100% on team Dante. Or according to her I was on her team Ultear but who cares, I'll just say team Dante because I'm the mc.

As she went off to start her plans, I had a meeting with Toma to get to.

Apparently the man had a difficult situation he needed my help with.